Forest Hill Chase Shopping Centre

Forest Hill Chase Shopping Centre

Forest Hill Chase Shopping Centre Logo
Location	Forest Hill, Victoria, Australia
Opening date	30 June 1964
Developer	Pacific Shopping Centres
Management	Novion Property Group
No. of stores and services	204
No. of anchor tenants	7 major 10 minor
Total retail floor area	64,935 m2 (698,950 sq ft)
No. of floors	3
Parking	~3400
Website	www.foresthillchaseshopping.com.au

Forest Hill Chase Shopping Centre is a major regional shopping centre located in the eastern suburb of Forest Hill in Melbourne, Australia. Owned and managed by Vicinity Centres, the centre is among the oldest in Victoria, opening on 30 June 1964 as an outdoor strip shopping centre, before being developed over the years into its current three level indoor form. Currently, Forest Hill Chase contains 200 stores and over 3500 free car parking spaces. The centre has three supermarkets, two discount department stores and one traditional department store spread across 3 levels. The architecture is distinguished by a roof of polycarbonate construction with a barrel vault design.

Forest Hill opened as a strip mall shopping centre in June 1964, this included first Safeway store in Australia, before gradually growing during the '70s and '80s with larger stores, a multi-deck car park adjacent to Canterbury Road, the development of a Woolworths supermarket and an enclosed two storey building at the southern end of the site (where Big W, Harris Scarfe and Safeway currently reside).

Forest Hill's conversion from a hybrid (strip mall / indoor) centre to a fully indoor site began in June 1987 with the demolition of the strip mall section, and the construction of a three storey extension to the existing building, which housed major tenants including Coles, Venture, Kmart and Hoyts, and was completed in 1989.

During circa 1997, Harris Scarfe was downsized from its two level form to occupying only level 1, to allow a new Big W store to open in the now vacant space on level 2. An AMF Bowling centre and children's play centre Run Riot was constructed on Level 3 a couple of years later.

In December 2004, Melbourne businessman Maurice Alter sold the Forest Hill Chase shopping centre to listed retail property trust CFS Gandel, managed by Colonial First State Property, for $214.5 million. The sale was close to being the largest national (Australian) retail property deal of the year and which included property management rights and the potential for redevelopment. At the time of purchase, Colonial First State Property fund manager Bevan Towning ruled out any immediate major redevelopment plans, saying the intention was to change the centre's retailing mix by introducing the same national brands it had at its other shopping centres, Chadstone and Northland. They also wanted to revitalize the centre and give it a "New look".